System 45 (2014) 254e264

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System

journal homepage: www.elsevier .com/locate/system

Book reviews

Theory and Practice in EFL Teacher Education: Bridging the Gap, J. Hüttner, B. Mehlmauer-Larcher, S. Reichl, B. Schiftner(Eds.). Multilingual Matters, Bristol, Buffalo, Toronto (2012). xix þ 256 pp.

With the increasing focus on English language education in many countries around the world, there is more and moreneed for trained teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL). Indeed, in several parts of the world teachers with littletraining in teaching EFL and/or poor English skills may be pressed into service (e.g., Hu, 2007; Nguyen, 2011; Sakamoto, 2012).In this respect, this book comes at a key time as countries begin to reform their EFL teacher education programmes to handleincreased demand.

The editors have gathered a collection of papers from scholars involved at various levels of teacher education that aims toaddress the complex relationship between theory and practice in programmes and institutions tasked with preparing newteachers of EFL. As noted by the editors, this relationship is not a simple flow from academics creating theory that is passeddown and absorbed into practice by teachers but rather flows in both directions concurrently, as teachers develop their owntheories based on insight from their practice.

The book is divided into 12 chapters, organised into four parts, covering a range from theoretical musings on the role ofteacher education to descriptions and analyses of programmes and recommendations for educators. Part 1, ‘Conceptualisingthe Issue of Theory and Practice’, consists of three papers that question the boundary between theory and practice in languageteaching. It begins with Henry Widdowson's (Chapter 1) exploration of what it is exactly that language teachers ought to beteaching. Widdowson provides a brief overview of trends in language teaching and the implications implicit in each, and endswith a call for more reflective practice that includes deep examination of underlying theories. This chapter exposes thecontradictions inherent in the field and its ever-changing preferences, and although it raises more questions than answers, itis a provocative piece that should be read by those tasked with educating new teachers about teaching methods.

In Chapter 2, Amy Tsui examines the idea of teacher knowledge and what it means to be an expert teacher. Tsui illustratesthe relationship between theory and practice in the development of teacher knowledge through a case study of an expertteacher in Hong Kong, and suggests that much knowledge is intuitive and unarticulated. Thus, Tsui calls for teachers toexplicitly reflect on how practical experience and theoretical understanding can inform each other, starting from the verybeginning of their careers.

Joachim Appel (Chapter 3) closes Part 1 with analyses of ‘moments of practice’ in a secondary school in Germany. Appelsuggests that careful analysis of these moments can reveal important information about practical knowledge and how itdevelops in and can be applied to specific contexts. This, in turn, may lead to a more detailed understanding of how theoriesinteract with the reality of the teaching situation and are implemented in practice.

In Part 2, ‘Developing Language Teachers' Knowledge Base’, a collection of four papers addresses areas of knowledge thatmay be lacking in teachers but are important for the development of skilled and effective practice, and thus should be stressedin training new teachers. This section is opened by Armin Berger (Chapter 4), who notes the gap between teachers' knowledgeof language testing and the extreme importance of English tests in modern society. In this chapter, Berger argues that lan-guage teachers need a strong understanding of assessment procedures in order to direct their teaching accordingly and bestserve their students. Given the role of English tests as a gatekeeper for top-quality education and as a prerequisite foremployment, even if English may not be used in the job (Song, 2011), Berger's points are well taken.

Although the majority of papers in the book are at a more theoretical level, Penny Ur (Chapter 5), with her trademarkaccessible style, provides a practical model for explicit grammar teaching. This chapter is a highlight of the book, as thearguments Ur provides to support explicit grammar teaching are convincing, and she also provides practical examples ofexercises that could be used by teachers. Ur's chapter, unlike most of the others in the book, would be accessible and useful toteachers (even those who are new or still in training) as well as teacher educators. On the other hand, David Newby (Chapter6) presents amore theoretical model that he calls Cognitiveþ Communicative Grammar, but provides little practical advice inhow it could be interpreted in the context of a teacher education programme.

The final paper in Part 2 is Susanne Reichl's (Chapter 7) discussion of the teaching of literature in EFL classes. Reichl speaksfrom her experience with the University of Vienna English department, which happens to place a fairly large emphasis on

Book reviews / System 45 (2014) 254e264 255

literature and also contains the teacher education programme within it. As Reichl herself admits that empirical support forthe use of literature in the EFL classroom is mixed, the issue of how best to train EFL teachers to use literature may be ofquestionable relevance in other contexts.

Part 3, ‘Assisting Language Teachers' Knowledge Construction’, contains three papers that report on current teacher ed-ucation programmes. In Chapter 8 (Sandra Hutterli & Michael C. Prusse), the implementation of a foreign language (bothEnglish and French) certificate course at the Zurich University of Teacher Education is reported and analysed. Chapter 9 (JuliaHüttner & Ute Smit) discusses an innovative module for teaching English for Specific Purposes (ESP) to teachers in Austria,while Chapter 10 (Barbara Mehlmauer-Larcher) reports on the implementation of a self-assessment tool, the EPOSTL (Eu-ropean Profile for Student Teachers of Languages), in the language teacher education programme at the University of Vienna.These chapters would be immediately applicable to people interested in curriculum design for teacher education, as thedescriptions of the strengths and weaknesses of each of the reported implementations can be easily compared to one's ownprogramme and assessed for potential fit.

The book closes with Part 4, ‘Addressing Established Paradigms’, two papers that call for a rethinking of paradigms inteacher education. Chapter 11 (Irena Vodopija-Krstanovic) challenges the importance of native versus non-native speakers asteachers, and illustrates that the divide between the two is more complicated than it appears. Vodopija-Krstanovic reports ona study conducted in a Croatian university that shows how teacher identity as a native or non-native speaker shifts dependingon the situation, and highlights the pervasiveness of the concept at all levels of the institution.

In the final chapter of the book (Chapter 12), Eva Vetter examines the impact of multilingualism as a language policy inEurope, and shows how the vague nature of the policy documents can lead to multiple interpretations and thus varied formsof implementation. As with the first chapter in the book, Chapter 12 raises more questions than answers, but it opens up thefloor for debate about issues of multilingualism that could eventually lead to more consensus.

Although Theory and Practice in EFL Teacher Education: Bridging the Gap does much good in bringingmany important issuesregarding teacher education to light, oneweakness of the book is that the perspective is fairly limited: 13 of the 15 authors arebased in (or gathered the majority of their experience in) the UK or continental Europe, with six coming from the sameinstitution, the University of Vienna. Despite the enormous growth in EFL in Asia, the Asian perspective is only represented bya single chapter, and large EFL markets elsewhere in the world lack any representation. The concentration in authors from thesame area casts some doubt on the generalisability of the issues and solutions suggested in the papers, and it would have beenrefreshing to have seen a more global representation of what is a global issue.

Despite the name of the book, many of the chapters in Theory and Practice in EFL Teacher Education: Bridging the Gap areheavy on theory and promoting alternativeways to think about teacher education, and light on concrete practical suggestions.Thus, the book may be more suited for experienced teacher educators who are looking for new perspectives and ways toimprove their existing programmes, rather than novice teacher educators searching for assistance in building their initialprogrammes.

References

Hu, Y. (2007). China's foreign language policy on primary English education: what's behind it? Language Policy, 6, 359e376.Nguyen, H. (2011). Primary English language education policy in Vietnam: insights from implementation. Current Issues in Language Planning, 12(2),

225e249.Sakamoto, M. (2012). Moving toward effective English language teaching in Japan: issues and challenges. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Devel-

opment, 33(4), 409e420.Song, J. J. (2011). English as an official language in South Korea: global English or social malady? Language Problems & Language Planning, 35(1), 35e55.

Glenn M. DavisDepartment of Foreign Languages and Literatures, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

E-mail address: gdavis@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2014.07.001

Materials (e.g., coursebooks, textbooks, lesson units) are seen as artifacts that facilitate language teaching and learning(henceforth, pedagogy). They are a crucial part of curriculum materials and an established part of language pedagogy

Teaching Materials and the Roles of EFL/ESL Teachers: Practice and Theory, Ian McGrath. Bloomsbury, London (2013).xv þ 240 pp.

(Rowland & Barrs, 2013). Particularly in the context of English language pedagogy, commonly, commercially-publishedand mandated materials dictate or prescribe what and how to teach and learn English without considering the totality of